
Nat King Cole – Looking Back (1965/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24bit/96kHz | Time – 25:02 minutes | 569 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAPITOL CATALOG MKT (C92)
Six months after Nat King Cole’s untimely death, Capitol Records issued this compilation LP, which did not bode well for its stewardship of his recorded legacy. Nominally speaking, the album was a collection of tracks from the late ’50s previously released only on singles and EPs, which would have made it, if a minor Cole collection, nevertheless welcome to fans and collectors. But the three songs that had been the biggest hits among the selections, “Looking Back,” “Send for Me,” and “If I May” (all Top Ten records), were not the original recordings, but the re-recordings Cole had done for his album The Nat King Cole Story in 1961. As if that weren’t bad enough, the recordings had had new guitar and percussion tracks overdubbed to give the music more of a contemporary sound, circa 1965. The result of course was a travesty that did not reflect Cole’s musical taste, even on material that was not among his best work to begin with. – William Ruhlmann
Like this:
Like Loading...